In 1939 the Ideal Milk Bottle Company started fabricating a milk dispensing apparatus to offer an easier and convenient way of storing, cooling and thus dispensing milk containers to wholesale and retail customers. The dispensing apparatus was patented on Oct. 3, 1939, U.S. Pat. No. 2,174,712, by Ralph W. Warner, Almond C. Woodruff and Harold Smalley. (Prior Art) This was the beginning of multiple companies initiating new ideas to boost sales of their products. At that time, milk and other liquid consumables, may have been packaged in glass bottles and cardboard carton containers which escaladed the growth of our vast multi-billion dollar vending machine market that we have today. During this short period, Ideal Milk Company changed its name to Ideal Dispensing Company, and in the process began to manufacture dispensing machines for big name beverage companies. Another Ideal patent was completed in May 5, 1953, U.S. Pat. No. 2,637,612 by Ralph Warner and Harold Smalley, which was for a release mechanism used with paper carton dispensing. (Prior Art) This type of dispensing apparatus continued to be built through the 1950's, but was very limited through the years. As time progressed, the vending market gained momentum creating additional sales of beverage type products that in turn created the vending machine manufacturing market itself. Our research shows that by the 1950's the Ideal Dispenser Company, was one of the only companies that built the manual horizontal slideable guideway dispensing apparatus for their cooling machines. This vending machine could not contend with the competition that required the volumes of product needed to be contained in a machine and be automated at the same time. The uniqueness of selecting your soda pop, putting your money in the slot and choosing the desired flavor and brand, then manually sliding it through the guideway spaces to the delivery opening, then pulling up and out, was fun, but could not compete with the new world of vending machines that were becoming known for quickness and volume.
Another down fall to the original slideable guideway dispensing apparatus may have been that during its time in service it was designed for about four different sizes and shapes of containers, that were available in the 1940's and 50's. In order to accommodate the different neck sizes of containers, it was necessary to fabricate a completely new dispensing apparatus with a change in the width of the said guideway opening for each new desired size. The high expense and non-productive process was likely the main contributing factor that caused this type of a vending machine apparatus to be ineffective and therefore became obsolete as the era of mass volume vending machines took over the commercial market.
Over the past 60 years, the beverage industry has developed many different styles, sizes, shapes of beverage containers and many new beverage companies have entered the marketplace. This new interior design of said apparatus allows for the return of a popular vintage product; a classic item, made into a useable, memorable, and modern appliance. The baby boomer population in 2010 exceeded 40 million. This segment of our population remembers the Ideal Dispenser and long for the “good 'ol days”. Vintage products are booming in the marketplace today and this new design of the frame and horizontal guide-way type dispensing apparatus, give opportunity to meet a demand. This new apparatus gives opportunity to bring back a vintage product, as a new and useful appliance to be used in a man cave, recreation room, office, patio, by pool, commercial or residential. Creation of this now useful appliance will fill a need, and help our economy by creating new jobs in manufacturing and retail sales and equally important create that wonderful nostalgic memory when life was simple—a day that most of us long for.